Vertis bankruptcy sale to Quad/Graphics finalized
Greenville’s former Vertis operation officially changed its name to Quad/Graphics in January. — Daily News/Kelli Ameling
GREENVILLE — On Jan. 16, Quad/Graphics Inc. officially purchased Vertis Holdings after Vertis filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in October.
It was Vertis Holding’s third time filing for bankruptcy since 2008.
Vertis is a premier provider of targeted advertising and marketing solutions to leading retail consumer services companies, according to its website.
According to Bloomberg.com, the company filed for bankruptcy, stating it planned to sell to Quad/Graphics Inc. in part of a court-supervised auction.
Quad/Graphics, based in Sussex, Wis., is a leading global provider for print and multichannel solutions for consumer magazines, special-interest publications, catalogs, retail inserts/circulars, direct mail and more, according to its website.
However, this change will not effect employees at its Greenville location.
“Quad/Graphics acquired Vertis on Jan. 16 and Greenville became part of the Quad/Graphics family the same day,” said Claire Ho, spokeswoman for Quad/Graphics.
According to Ho, the Greenville location’s name officially changed to Quad/Graphics on the same day the sale was complete.
“The facility is operating as usual,” Ho said when asked if employment changes would take place. “It is one of our retail advertising insert production facilities.”
According to a press release issued by the company in January, Quad/Graphics purchased the Vertis Holdings for the net purchase of $170 million.
The asking price was for $267 million, but owed $97 million to Quad/Graphics.
“Quad/Graphics used cash on hand and drew on its revolving credit facility to finance the acquisition,” stated the release.
Vertis generated about $1.1 billion in revenues in 2012 and about $55 million in annual EBITDA on an unaudited basis, adjusted for restructuring, impairment and other transaction-related expenses, stated the press release. After the purchase of Veritis, Quad/Graphics employs about 25,000 people in more than 70 print-production facilities in North America, Latin America and Europe.
Kelli Ameling
A Daily News staff writer, Kelli covers the Greenville area and the topics of health and technology.Kelli Ameling has written 586 articles.
Vertis / Quad has cheated over 130 longtime workers at the Stevensville, Ontario, Canada plant. While the workers there were continually told a buyer was being sought for the only Canadian facility, that was not the case. As soon as the January 16th court proceeding was finalized, Quad representatives came into the Canadian plant and closed it immediately even though we had a strong Canadian clientele and were profitable. They are now stripping out our presses so that if someone ever does buy the facility, they won’t be able to print there. The employees are entitled under Canadian law to approximately 2.7 mil in severance. I hope Gerry Sokol and all the Vertis execs that premeditated this murder of a plant in a small town ROT IN HELL.